In the vast universe of fraud, scams and small video game scandals, Dreamworld is the last standard.At the head of this project with ambitious names, two men promise a hundred converts "the ultimate experience".The latter offer them in exchange nearly $ 65,000.
32 867 vuesAn infinite open world, an innumerable palette of genres swimming in the same universe, a million players wandering happily on the same server...Dreamworld developers guarantee being at the heart of the design of this fantastic production.And on Kickstarter, the prize pool of their ambitious project amasses nearly $ 65,000, paid by hundreds of dreamy contributors.The authors of these promises assure them therefore shape the ultimate experience.Wrongly.
"The last game you will play"
On March 17, 2021, the crowdfunding Kickstarter gathered an entry into its gargantuan database.Drunned in an ocean of a few hundred thousand productions, it has every interest in arming herself with solid foundations to hope to get the attention of potential contributors.Here, the success rate of projects is still only 39.42% (Kickstarter statistics).But this one has something special.Called DreamWorld ("dream world" in French), he relies on rather daring arguments: an infinite open mmo made up of thousands of biomes where millions of players would coexist alongside unique creatures.In the long term, the ambitions would become all the more extravagant: "All genres, all styles, all types of games that have existed and that will exist, all in one world, built by each player, on the basis of'modular, accessible and powerful user interfaces.Think of Zbrush, Photoshop and Sketchup, but in play and more easily ”.Successful promises of a very exceptional slogan: "the last game you play".Each contributor will be offered access to the alpha as well as a plot of land corresponding to the height of his generosity and on which he can import any 3D model.To build this incredible universe, developers have so far 10,000 dollars sacrificed from their personal bottoms as well as external funding of 650,000 dollars.
We know that MMOs cannot be built with only $ 10,000.We have obtained the majority of our funding from some of the best investors in Silicon Valley.We know that we will be able to deliver our alpha and beyond with the money we already have!
At this point, many have already received some alarming signals.Yet DreamWorld met with a certain success.In just nine hours of publication, it is even fully funded.Of the hoped -for 10,000 dollars, he harvested 64,706.A sum obtained from 663 contributors.Better still, the administrators of the Kickstarter platform award him the badge "Project We Love", "a project that we love", in French.On the page, a web address leads directly to the company's description, freshly created in 2020.We learn that she is overseen by Combinator, a particularly coveted startup boxing box;It is all the same the incubator who revealed Airbnb, Twitch and Doordash.Sacred guarantee of quality, as we know their rigorous selection process.But a more worrying fact then arises: there are only two to tackle full -time when creating the game from offices in San Fransisco.In recent months, a job offer has been waiting to be won by a few "excellent programmers" to help them in their hard work.
Red Flags
It will not be long to wait until a handful of Internet users decide to seize the subject DreamWorld.The trailer already begins of first questions;Because each element of the world presented seems to be overlooked in a far too heterogeneous whole.And the avatar looks like traits for the default character of the Unreal Engine, the free creation tool for free.In a post Reddit published barely a few days after the appearance of the Kickstarter page, a man names ensures that the game is in fact only a cluster of 3D resources and tools unearthed on the Epic Games engine shop.An observation also supported by Callum Upton, videographer whose analysis has already collected tens of thousands of views: "What they have here are multiple technical demos that they have assembled without clean code".Even the animations of the pickaxe handled by the character come from another online bookstore, Mixamo.The pirate boat, the crystals buried in the caves, the traces of snow stripped: the slightest fragment, the slightest plot of earth have actually been recovered from third -party platforms."90 % of the resources I found and they used, which are only the ones I listed...have been free in the past eight months, "even adds Upton.The noose tightens quickly.
And then other obvious questions are formulated: "They claim to have $ 650,000 in funding from investors but what investors would support this?They claim that this is the case of Ycombinator but there is no evidence of the amount of money they have given them ”, raises Mrasive.And how could so many people have biting Dreamworld's hook so easily?
By questioning people on Discord, I discovered that they were especially young people who blindly believed in marketing promise.By questioning one of the people about the game, I was banned.I didn't say anything inappropriate, I just asked why they believed in the game, but they became ultra-defensive and the next thing I know is that I was banned.- Mrasive on Reddit
Their communication channels are checked.In the Kickstarter comments section, this is another story;Here, no possible moderation.And hundreds of complaints agglutine.Some have managed to cancel their commitment.Most still await their access code for the game: "Despite all the money I have invested in supporting this game, I can't get a copy to play", "I tried to contact you atThis subject in several forms without obtaining a single answer "," I strongly suspect the developers never come back to the comments here, since they cannot control them ".The last protest dates back only to ten days before the writing of this article.
Who is Dreamworld?
Surprisingly, the identity of DreamWorld's thinking heads is proudly exposed on the Kickstarter page.Garrison Bellack, CEO, presents himself as a competitive player and engineering manager;Skills already used at Google, Facebook and Apple according to Linkedin.And then there is Zachary Kaplan, creative leader endowed with eclectic knowledge in project management.His profile is more captivating.Before Dreamworld, he devoted himself to his atypical mark of portable speakers, Core;An imposing accessory to put on the chest directly, held by large straps.He will say he had the idea of this "cornerstone of a great vision of innovation" after being struck twice by a taxi, too distracted by the music of his headphones.To date, none of the products in this box (also born from a participatory campaign) has yet been marketed.The project is dormant.Anyway, neither Bellack, nor Kaplan seems to have any experience in video games.On the Discord server of the game, the latter will still claim nine years of practice on personal projects, mostly flash titles.
In the five-minute trailer of Dreamworld (accessible here), almost four are occupied by the confident words of the developers.It is in Kaplan that the role of spokespersons returns, leaving his acolyte to approach the more technical parts.Smile Beat, he takes up the terms put in writing in the descriptions of the project: "Our vision is that Dreamworld becomes a purpose".And in a more trembling voice, he says he lost his server job, a work opportunity and then his fiancée before embarking on this crazy project with his best friend "Garry".A kind of fruitful therapy, therefore.It seems that the tragedies he suffers always push him to large exploits.Kaplan thus ensures that his intentions are pure.But that was without counting the intervention of his ex-fiancée who, a month later, speaks on his YouTube channel.Aislinn Evans, who shared extracts from his travels with the entrepreneur a few years earlier, says: "The fact that he uses our break to take advantage of his Kickstarter video in this way, it looks like pure emotional manipulation andsimple...Sorry, to emotional marketing ".And to add: "He was already developing this (Dreamworld) for several months when I broke with him".A separation encouraged according to her by too persistent lies: Evans will learn in particular with a jeweler that her impressive engagement ring offered with great pomp by Kaplan on a red carpet was only a vulgar piece of OCD;A discovery denied for several months by the person concerned.On networks, mockery towards the leader and his right arm are multiplying.Their image is harshly shaken.
On March 22, 2021, the Youtubeur Skiazos published on its small YouTubeune channel interview with the members of DreamWorld.She will be renamed much later: "Q/A with DreamWorld! (It was before I realize that it was and that it is a scam !!!!)".The most subversive questions are asked.Is there an ounce of original creation that rests in this crowding of resources recovered elsewhere?Garrison Bellack this time takes the lead: "The multiplayer is personalized, the gameplay is personalized.Our philosophy is not to reinvent the wheel.If you can spend money to take advantage of the work that other developers have done...The only thing that matters is to be able to offer players faster ".The arguments surprise.Bellack even allows himself some advice in an almost irreverent tone:
Like, you need to take advantage of everything you can and go as fast as you can.For those who took 15 years to get to the same point as we are in eight months, you know, be ruthless, do only the most important things, take advantage of the work of others.
The Card Castle
Over the popularization of the case, the cards castle already fragally built by Bellack and Kaplan gradually collapses.On the media side, PC Gamer Publicien long account of history, fleshed out of an anthology of overwhelming testimonies.That of the youtubeur callum upton in particular, which for a few months has dedicated a large part of its content to the whimsical project.He accuses one of the creators of nepotism.
According to Upton, a Senior Employee from Y Combinator claims that Bellack has a friend in the company who helped give the green light to DreamWorld without the appropriate commission."At the start, I thought it was a joke, but they called me and validated all their information and their sources.This person is actually higher than a simple investor, "he said."Dreamworld has not been checked.They apparently had nothing to show the day of the demo, and they were still allowed to pass." - Gamer PC
Solicited, Y Combinator will not grant comments to PC Gamer.Earlier, the Mmobyte chain Stix Stix also had some confidences to make;The content creator claims to have been contacted by an anonymous developer to praise DreamWorld.In exchange for which he could be offered no less than “20% of all gains” collected on the game.Finally, some point the finger at fraudulent actions carried out on the Dreamworld discord, where the banns are linked at a disconcerting speed.Upton again, says he digs up screenshots of developers trying to offer Amazon gift cards and Uber Eats to moderators from 14 to 16, instead of paying them.The latter would also have been recruited from Minecraft and Fortnite servers.Another disappointment to note: the name Dreamworld is in fact already copywrighté by DreamWorks Animation (Source: Kombo), the mastodon of the American animation.
And while the accusations are raining, DreamWorld continues to blindly.On May 21, 2021, to everyone's surprise, an alpha left its den.Bellack and Kaplan start gently; the universe has its infancy of a main city as well as some construction possibilities in its infancy.As expected, the result is considered a real fiasco: Dreamworld is home to unsightly textures, coarse white blocks to delimit its borders, an avatar that clumsily crosses the walls, or even a server so weak that it becomes piratable by anyWho.YouTubers are having a great time to cover the event.Upton even seems to take a taste for it;Almost every month, he happily explores the world of DreamWorld, mocking his discoveries, or recently noted some efforts made by the developers.
So, are Bellack and Kaplan merciless crooks or do they naively hope to develop the ultimate experience?At this point, DreamWorld's Alpha is in any case far from responding to promises made.Kaplan says that its development will last more than a year and will pay for regular updates each week.On the Kickstarter page, the two leaders still publish enthusiastic notes.The last date of January 2, 2022: "There are tons of new people who play, and others who join every day".Dreamworld gently continues its construction.After all, in their palette of press releases, the duo has never promised a finished product before.The infinite open world could come to life in five, ten years, or simply in your dreams.
